Knock sensor question (anyone tried a Bosch instead of OEM)

[turboglenn]

Just wondering if anyone has ordered a Bosch 2 wire knock sensor to use in place of the OEM one? From talking with John at J&S it seems that the signal would be of the correct type and since it uses a bolt to pinch it down to the block, the possibilities for "dampening" the sensor would be about endless and only limited to how long the bolt is and how far away from the firewall the motor is. I was thinking some Nylon washers between the block and sensor and maybe using an aluminum bolt that wouldn't transfer near as much of the noise, especially lower frequency noises.. I am thinking that it is something that would be so tunable that it may actually benefit our community.

Let me know what you've tried besides stock

[Defiant]

All I can say is that I'd be surprised if there's any functional difference between knock sensors. They're listening for the "ringing" of a cast-iron block, and the differences in block castings out there is really very small. Wallop a spare one with a hammer (pretty much what knock is doing) and they all make a very similar "toongk" sound.
Someone in the Nissan world discovered the knock sensor doesn't have to be put back on their V-6s down under the intake manifold, and work just as well mounted up on top of the mess, using one of the manifold bolts and saving about six hours of fiddle-de-dicking around.

I'd be iffy on trying to insulate it from the block, however. In the Nissan case, they're using a bolt that goes straight into the main block casting.

What price differences are you looking at?

[MIdsm]

BigMoose's Ramblings: Knock

[turboglenn]

MIdsm, great link, thanks for sharing it... It's now bookmarked! And the ast sensor on that page is the Bosch unit i was talking about. I guess i was right to assume it was a better sensor from the get go, and after seeing it responce range i am thinking you wouldn't even need to "dampen" it to isolate some of the other non-knock noises taking place inside the engine.

I think i'm going to get one for my J&S and see if it makes a difference, I just hope i don't have to send the unit in to be calibrated for that particular sensor since it's already an option on John's website.

As far as any price differences, i'm not even sure that there will be much difference between them, but since mitsu uses a 2 wire sensor i was just thinking that it may be possible to use one and since it's calibrated for a very narrow frequency range it just might eliminate some of the PK issues a lot of us see from day to day in our DSM's

Right now i'm using the Delphi unit and even though the J&S can be "de-sensitized" greatly i would still rather start with a sensor that has a little more R&D in it, that's calibrated to pick up on just the range that knock transmits in.

[viprez586]

Turboglenn - Do you have a link of where to buy this sensor? Any of these 1G applicable?